Shares of Apple slipped about 4 percent Monday after investment bank Goldman Sachs removed the company from its buy list for the first time in more than two years, citing concerns over consumer spending and a belief that Macworld Expo will not see the company embark on a major new product initiative.

Giving the gift of iPhone this holiday season requires that customers purchase a gift card from Apple rather than the handset itself, a process that may understate the company's December quarter shipments as a result.

Apple's share of the worldwide smartphone market is closer to 13% than the 16% reported earlier this week, but that's still good enough to push the iPhone maker past Microsoft to become the third largest smartphone OS vendor, according to Gartner.

In addition to outselling a broad and combined range of Windows Mobile handsets, Apple's iPhone 3G is being credited this week as the lone force responsible for growth of the smartphone market during the September quarter.

Microsoft will announce its entry into the smartphone arena early next year with an iPhone rival build around NVIDIA's new system-on-a-chip (SoC) for small form factor mobile devices, according to a new report.

A slowing global economy had little impact on Apple's computer business last month, as consumers willingly plunked down their cash for the company's new MacBook offerings, helping to drive Mac sales up more than 25 percent year-over-year.

Following a month-long wait, Apple on Tuesday finally began taking orders for its new 24-inch LED-backlit Cinema Display through its online store, saying shipments will begin sometime later this month.

Adobe has pledged to optimize a version of Flash 10 for smartphones using ARM processors like those of the iPhone -- but iPhone itself isn't getting that upgrade. Also, flash memory maker Spansion has implicated Apple in lawsuits against Samsung that could block the import of iPods.

With Black Friday sale information from rival PC vendors beginning to leak online, experts at Barclays Capital say they expect Apple to counter the promotions with a more aggressive than usual one-day sale, offering deep discounts on a number of Mac models.

Parallels on Tuesday announced the availability of version 4.0 of Parallels Desktop for Mac, a speedier and more feature rich version of its virtualization software that lets users to run Windows, Linux and other operating systems side-by-side with Mac OS X.

First on AI: With Apple's recent 'State of the Mac' omitting any mention of the Mac mini and reports surfacing over the current line's discontinuation, there's been some speculation that the diminutive desktop's days may (again) be numbered. That's unlikely the case, say insiders, who are sharing new details.

Apple has just concluded its fiscal fourth quarter conference call which featured a surprise appearance by company chief executive Steve Jobs, who fielded questions on low cost PCs, the future of the iPhone, and the new netbook category of portables.

Despite a widely publicized report that suggested iPhone sales in Japan were less than half of initial expectations, independent data shows that sales are right in line with expectations in a market that is often difficult for Western companies to enter.

Snow Leopard's across-the-board leap to 64-bits, from the kernel to all of its bundled apps, will make more memory available and boost performance. However, Apple will also need to manage its 64-bit lead and organize its developers. Here's why.

Although Apple is just coming to grips with iPhone 3G demand among the device's first batch of carriers, the next phase of new carriers should already have the stock it needs to handle its own introductions, AppleInsider has been told.

With the first phase of the iPhone 3G launch in the rear view, Apple Inc. is now shifting much of its focus towards product refreshes targeting its two other revenue drivers and is advising resellers to be prepared for product shortages in the interim.

Two weeks after it launched on July 11, the iPhone 3G is still hard to find in the US. Many Apple retail stores have no supplies at all, leaving buyers to track down the stores that do have remaining stock and wait in slow moving lines that stretched out for five hours.

Apple on Monday announced the best spring quarter for earnings and revenue in company history, and has just finished a financial conference call with analysts and members of the media. Several notes of interest are available from the call.

Apple promised that iPhone 3G and its iPhone 2.0 software would be more suited to business, but a severe shortage of the device could force companies to wait as long as two weeks before they see their orders, and is forcing many home customers to go without at the same time.